Quest for sustainable peace and development under militarized security approaches

Published on Tue, 2019-05-07 20:26

The 2030 Agenda represents a paradigm shift in terms of universality and interlinked goals, including across borders and affirms the need for a rights-based approach to peace and security, one focused on prevention. At the same time, most governments are still producing, trading and spending more on arms, thereby fueling a militarized approach to peace and security. Dominant power talks on how to achieve peace continue to silence those impacted most by conflicts and wars, including women and children. Profits made under war economies and through the arms trade continue to deepen inequalities and violate the rights of those with enormous humanitarian and development needs.

Instabilities, conflicts and wars are ‘sustained’ in many parts of the world, for the sake of security and the narrow interests of those who benefit from them, moving in a direction opposite to the goal of ‘leaving no one behind’. Long-term solutions for achieving peace and stability require more than a mere commitment to SDG 16 on peaceful and inclusive societies; they require revising policies at all levels (economic, political, social, cultural…etc.) and adopting inclusive and comprehensive development plans.

By Ziad Abdel Samad and Bihter Moschini, Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND).